Longmont location:Boulder County Clerk & Recorder/St. Vrain Community Hub, 534 Terry St. (west side of complex)

Lyons location: Lyons Town Hall, 432 Fifth Ave. (only Nov. 6 and 7).

Voter registration

While voters can register up to and even on Election Day, the last day to register or change your registration and still receive a ballot in the mail is Oct. 30. If you register or change your registration after that date, you must vote in person.

Elections such as this year's are called "off-year elections." Is that because voters, in general, don't think these are the elections that matter?

You'd think so, considering that two years ago — the last time we had one of these locally focused elections — only 44.9 percent of Boulder County's active voters cast ballots. In Weld County, that number was 34.5 percent. Remember, that's a percentage of active voters, not eligible voters.

Yet, voters need to be on this year as much as any, because while it might be national politics that keep people worked up, it is elections such as this that have an effect on day-to-day life in our communities.

What will our local sales taxes and utility rates be in coming years? How will our city grow? Should the term limits of certain local officials be extended?

And more importantly, who will represent you on your City Council? It is this body that makes the week-to-week decisions about how your city operates, and how it should respond to the opportunities and challenges that face it every day.

Today, the 10 candidates who would like to represent you at city hall have the opportunity to make their pitch directly to Times-Call readers — two candidates for the Ward 2 seat; five candidates for two at-large seats; and three candidates for mayor.

While we encourage you to vote, we also encourage you to learn about those who are asking for your vote. Do their visions for this city agree with yours? Do their solutions to the problems this city faces make sense to you?

This is not really an off year for voters. It's as big a year as any. So learn all you can about the issues and candidates before you, then vote.

The Boulder alt-country band gives its EPs names such as Death and Resurrection, and its songs bear the mark of hard truths and sin. But the punk energy behind the playing, and the sense that it's all in good fun, make it OK to dance to a song like "Death." Full Story